The electrical properties of liquid mercury

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give a qualitative account of the electrical properties of liquid divalent metals for which the density of states falls below the free electron value at the Fermi surface. It is argued that if this happens in the crystalline state it will also happen in the liquid, that this is so in mercury and that the density of states rapidly decreases with increasing volume. In the first order of perturbation theory the density of states does not affect the electrical and optical properties of a liquid metal (Edwards 1962, Faber 1966), so that to this approximation Ziman's theory is correct; but when the deviations from the free electron value are large this is no longer the case. A discussion is given of the behaviour to be expected, and a qualitative description of the electrical and optical properties of liquid mercury and its amalgams can be obtained in terms of the results achieved. A brief discussion is given also of certain other disordered structures in which similar phenomena may occur.